CHAPTER XVII 



R. S. VEECH AND INDIAN HILL 



AT the time I write, the oldest living trotting-horse 

 breeder of note is R. S. Veech, founder of Indian 

 Hill Stock Farm, near Louisville, Ky. In the old 

 days 1000 acres were in grass and the pastures were 

 watered by the stream known as Bear Grass. The 

 soil rested upon a limestone foundation and the grass 

 contained bone and muscle-producing properties. In 

 the ground-work of his stud Mr. Veech recognized 

 the marked superiority of the Hambletonian and 

 Mambrino Chief families, and his leading stallion, 

 Princeps, was by Woodford Mambrino (son of 

 Mambrino Chief), out of Primrose by Alexander's 

 Abdallah, son of Rysdyk's Hambletonian. Wood- 

 ford Mambrino was one of the most determined 

 of race horses, and a conspicuous sire of speed. The 

 famous queen of the trotting turf, Goldsmith Maid, 

 2.14, was a daughter of Alexander's Abdallah. 

 Princeps was a horse of 16 hands, of fine temper, 

 action, and resolution, and he won an enviable repu- 

 tation as a sire of trotters that could successfully 

 fight the battles of the Grand Circuit. Through 

 Black Rose, his granddam, as well as through Wood- 

 bine, the dam of Woodford Mambrino, he traced 

 directly to the thoroughbred, and races of divided 



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